The volunteer organization Friends of The Appomattox River (FAR) certainly lives up to its name. No river could have better friends than these and the Farmville Blueway is the latest example of their caring esteem for the stream that separates, and also joins, the Prince Edward and Cumberland neighborhoods of the town.

The Farmville Blueway, a FAR ripple, is a protected stream corridor managed for conservation and recreation and allows canoeists to embark at the Wilck's Lake landing and, if they wish to paddle and float the full distance, take out at the Riverside Park boat ramp.

The four-mile blueway embraces three separate bodies of water-Wilck's Lake, obviously, and Buffalo Creek, which is the liquid segue into the Appomattox River (go to FAR's website: http://far-va.org/ for full blueway details). What a tremendous asset and added attraction to the community's inventory of cultural and recreational offerings.

FAR's Damien Fehrer told Town Council that the organization believes that “promoting the blueway and making it accessible will serve the public interest and add vitality to our community by making an area that is rich in natural and human history available to all to discover….

“The blueway designation,” he continued, “will help assure a healthy future for the river while providing educational and recreational opportunities for the community. It will also allow our community to reap the economic and social benefits from the river while maintaining its natural, historic and scenic value.”

The blueway was conceived by FAR about a decade ago and its development has flown under the radar, or under the sonar, but that is changing. The Friends organization is underwriting the cost of signage and brochures to promote what FAR's Chuck Green described to council members as “a hidden jewel.” Town Council voted to partner with the effort by helping to locate and install the signs, pledging also to help FAR, which maintains the waterway, should river clean-up ever require additional manpower.

The Farmville Blueway is FAR and away a shining example of how a riverbank community can protect, promote and paddle toward the next bend in the river together.

-JKW-